Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis, Carambaia

Dom Casmurro is an 1899 novel written by Brazilian author Machado de Assis and it is widely regarded as one of the most important books ever written in Portuguese language. It is written as a fictional memoir by a distrusting, jealous husband, the narrator, however, is not a reliable conveyor of the story as it is a dark comedy.

This special edition published by Carambaia is an attempt to honour this important book. It brings illustrations by Brazilian artist Carlos Issa who made interventions on photographs of Rio de Janeiro in the 19th century.

Designers often justify their typographic choices with the era the novel was written. It is a way to connect readers to a certain time. However, the purpose in this case went through a different way. Should this (obvious) connection be important in this case and even desirable? It would make sense if the character’s voices couldn’t be upgraded.

Stanley, apart from being a beautiful typeface — with all the resources needed for text composition — has some joints and abrupt endings that relates with Issa’s work.

Hidden city/nature: Rio de Janeiro is a permanent character in mostly all Machado de Assis works. A double fore-edge painting on both sides of the page margin shows two different landmarks of Rio: Sugarloaf Mountain and The Carioca Aqueduct.